Birdsong: Sex and War
Fuck Yeah.
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Birdsong: Sex and War
Fuck Yeah.
Been looking forward to this one for quite a while. 20 pages in, and McDonough has already redeemed himself after the fascinating/infuriating mess that was his Shakey Neil Young bio.
Just a Couple of Days
by Tony Vigorito
fun as hell to read. kinda like palahniuk but less angry and more with philosophy and chemical warfare....dr. strangelove of today.
by Tony Vigorito
fun as hell to read. kinda like palahniuk but less angry and more with philosophy and chemical warfare....dr. strangelove of today.
This is a great quick read. Very entertaining. Just as much bile as always from Vonnegut. Age hasn't mellowed him at all.
QUOTE(shimmy @ Apr 14 2006, 10:25 PM) [snapback]65412[/snapback]
Just a Couple of Days
by Tony Vigorito
fun as hell to read. kinda like palahniuk but less angry and more with philosophy and chemical warfare....dr. strangelove of today.
Sounds interesting. Gonna have to look for this.
somebody mentioned McDonough's Russ Meyer bio awhile ago--read this sad story on Link Wray
http://www.furious.com/perfect/linkwray.html
http://www.furious.com/perfect/linkwray.html
This dude is hilarious.
QUOTE(avatar_ackbar @ Apr 9 2006, 08:05 PM) [snapback]60545[/snapback]
Here's another question for book enthusiasts: what was the first book that you fell in love with? That led you to find other great books out there?
Mine was The World According to Garp. Read it in High School, freshman year. After that I never read any books assigned to me in class. I found my own literature to read.
I also loved Garp, and it directed me to my favorite book of all time, A Prayer for Owen Meany.
The first book I fell in love with was Breakfast of Champions.
Actually i read this a long time ago, now i'm re-reading "On The Road"; i just wanted to throw this in the mix because it should definitely be read.
And in answer to the "book you fell in love with" question, i'm a bit ashamed but a bit proud to say it was "Fight Club". Led me to all sorts of great literature...Also "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" by Bukowski.
QUOTE(WesterMats @ Apr 17 2006, 11:03 PM) [snapback]67159[/snapback]
I also loved Garp, and it directed me to my favorite book of all time, A Prayer for Owen Meany.
The first book I fell in love with was Breakfast of Champions.
I loved Garp too, but I almost couldn't finish it. I need to re-read all the Vonnegut books...and get the new one, it sounds like. Cat's Cradle was my favorite for a long time.
QUOTE(mouthbreather @ Apr 15 2006, 08:18 PM) [snapback]65785[/snapback]
This is a great quick read. Very entertaining. Just as much bile as always from Vonnegut. Age hasn't mellowed him at all.
QUOTE(shimmy @ Apr 14 2006, 10:25 PM) [snapback]65412[/snapback]
Just a Couple of Days
by Tony Vigorito
fun as hell to read. kinda like palahniuk but less angry and more with philosophy and chemical warfare....dr. strangelove of today.
Sounds interesting. Gonna have to look for this.
now that I'm close to finishing it you will DEFINITELY have to check this out. it got really good after the shit hits the fan, and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
also reading "scar tissue" by AK of the red hot chili peppers........crazy shit!
can anyone recommend any business books about entreprenuership or starting your own biz?
just kind of looking for the how-to, don't forget to do this, type stuff.
just kind of looking for the how-to, don't forget to do this, type stuff.
Not as eye-opening as Rock Snob, but good for a few nuggets
Oh man, Howell Raines.
<img src="http://www.nationalpress.org/usr_doc/Howell_Raines.jpg" width = "500">
Only a New York Times employee could be named London bureau chief at 43 and feel like their career is failing. I never get tired of reading about how this guy flamed up and then out.
^ Finally picked this one up a week ago. It will be some reading for me to do during the summer.
So I finished reading F&L 72' (thought it was great) now reading this because it's the last thing on my shelf that I haven't read.
and I got these for my birthday:)
and I got these for my birthday:)
QUOTE(RadioHitchcock @ Apr 24 2006, 08:57 AM) [snapback]72246[/snapback]
I thought this was poorly written... but I read it over four years ago maybe i should pick it up again and give it another chance.
rather disturbing.
don't usually post in this thread, but this book is worth mentioning...
Preparing for the 1975-84 lists
QUOTE
McSweeney's Issue 19
Our first issue of 2006 turns toward earlier and equally uncertain years, traveling back by way of pamphlets, info-cards, and letters addressing bygone conflicts and still-constant concerns. Expect, among other recovered works, carefree strategies for insurgencies in Nicaragua, astrological advice for the Nixon/Agnew campaigner, sanguine guidance for the soldier stationed in the Middle East at mid-century, and commonsense reinforcement for the doughboy drifting toward a gonorrhea infection. Also: T.C. Boyle's feral child novella and additional quasi-historical work by new writers.
Our first issue of 2006 turns toward earlier and equally uncertain years, traveling back by way of pamphlets, info-cards, and letters addressing bygone conflicts and still-constant concerns. Expect, among other recovered works, carefree strategies for insurgencies in Nicaragua, astrological advice for the Nixon/Agnew campaigner, sanguine guidance for the soldier stationed in the Middle East at mid-century, and commonsense reinforcement for the doughboy drifting toward a gonorrhea infection. Also: T.C. Boyle's feral child novella and additional quasi-historical work by new writers.
Our new McSweeney's came last night. Haven't had a chance to read any of it yet, but the packaging is amazing. All the stuff described above comes in the beautifully screened cigar box in the picture.
Getting stuff like this in the mail every once in a while makes the subscription so worthwhile.
QUOTE(deej @ Apr 28 2006, 01:54 AM) [snapback]75679[/snapback]
My wife read this, and I remember her really enjoying it for a while, but ultimatemly being dissapointed in it by the time she finished. Don't remember the details, though.
^^^I'm getting concerned w the direction its going. I might finish it tonite.
Decent break down of the reasons why corporate media is the dumps. Makes me super sad at the current state of PBS & NPR. Did they ever get the funding cuts that they were threatened with months back?
I am reading Gary Paul Nubhan's Why Some Like it Hot. It is for a class but it is so far a semi interesting read into evolutionary processes as to why some foods are good and some are bad. also goes into different human reactions towards spices and the like.
QUOTE(Biggie McSmalls @ Apr 28 2006, 10:40 AM) [snapback]75878[/snapback]
QUOTE
McSweeney's Issue 19
Our first issue of 2006 turns toward earlier and equally uncertain years, traveling back by way of pamphlets, info-cards, and letters addressing bygone conflicts and still-constant concerns. Expect, among other recovered works, carefree strategies for insurgencies in Nicaragua, astrological advice for the Nixon/Agnew campaigner, sanguine guidance for the soldier stationed in the Middle East at mid-century, and commonsense reinforcement for the doughboy drifting toward a gonorrhea infection. Also: T.C. Boyle's feral child novella and additional quasi-historical work by new writers.
Our first issue of 2006 turns toward earlier and equally uncertain years, traveling back by way of pamphlets, info-cards, and letters addressing bygone conflicts and still-constant concerns. Expect, among other recovered works, carefree strategies for insurgencies in Nicaragua, astrological advice for the Nixon/Agnew campaigner, sanguine guidance for the soldier stationed in the Middle East at mid-century, and commonsense reinforcement for the doughboy drifting toward a gonorrhea infection. Also: T.C. Boyle's feral child novella and additional quasi-historical work by new writers.
Our new McSweeney's came last night. Haven't had a chance to read any of it yet, but the packaging is amazing. All the stuff described above comes in the beautifully screened cigar box in the picture.
Getting stuff like this in the mail every once in a while makes the subscription so worthwhile.
Got the new McSweeney's last week, too, and can't wait to read it.
I also went on a little bit of a splurge and spontaneously bought Bongwater, The Jesus Papers, and The Town That Forgot to Breathe.
"Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude" by Robert Baer.
Makes me love our government even more. Not.
Makes me love our government even more. Not.
QUOTE(Cinnamon Pooter @ Apr 30 2006, 01:59 PM) [snapback]77293[/snapback]
I am reading Gary Paul Nubhan's Why Some Like it Hot. It is for a class but it is so far a semi interesting read into evolutionary processes as to why some foods are good and some are bad. also goes into different human reactions towards spices and the like.
and what class would that be?
"Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town" Cory Doctrow
Some weird shit, Bubba:
From Publishers Weekly
QUOTE
Starred Review. It's only natural that Alan, the broadminded hero of Doctorow's fresh, unconventional SF novel, is willing to help everybody he meets. After all, he's the product of a mixed marriage (his father is a mountain and his mother is a washing machine), so he knows how much being an outcast can hurt. Alan tries desperately to behave like a human being—or at least like his idealized version of one. He joins a cyber-anarchist's plot to spread a free wireless Internet through Toronto at the same time he agrees to protect his youngest brothers (members of a set of Russian nesting dolls) from their dead brother who's now resurrected and bent on revenge. Life gets even more chaotic after he becomes the lover and protector of the girl next door, whom he tries to restrain from periodically cutting off her wings. Doctorow (Eastern Standard Tribe) treats these and other bizarre images and themes with deadpan wit. In this inventive parable about tolerance and acceptance, he demonstrates how memorably the outrageous and the everyday can coexist. Agent, Russell Galen. (May 5)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.[i]
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.[i]
From Booklist
QUOTE
Middle-aged entrepreneur Alan, for whom mother is a washing machine and father is a mountain, has moved into one of Toronto's more interesting neighborhoods. The brother Alan and his other brothers killed years ago has returned to hound the family, and those other brothers, who are nesting dolls, show up on Alan's doorstep starving because the innermost brother has vanished. A next-door neighbor has wings that her boyfriend cuts back regularly so she can pass for normal. In the midst of such ordinary oddness, getting involved in a scheme to provide free wireless Internet to the neighborhood and eventually the city seems reasonable, even when it's masterminded by a crusty punk whose gear comes from Dumpster diving. Eventually, Alan concludes that he must go back to the mountain, a home he hasn't visited in years. The combination of Alan facing up to his family and their strangeness, the damage his dead brother will do to everything Alan cares about, and Doctorow's inescapable technological enthusiasm eventuates in a lovely, satisfying tale. Regina Schroeder
[i]Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
[i]Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
QUOTE(DiscountSounds @ May 2 2006, 12:59 PM) [snapback]78660[/snapback]
"Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude" by Robert Baer.
Makes me love our government even more. Not.
QUOTE(kmac @ May 2 2006, 01:07 PM) [snapback]78673[/snapback]
QUOTE(Cinnamon Pooter @ Apr 30 2006, 01:59 PM) [snapback]77293[/snapback]
I am reading Gary Paul Nubhan's Why Some Like it Hot. It is for a class but it is so far a semi interesting read into evolutionary processes as to why some foods are good and some are bad. also goes into different human reactions towards spices and the like.
and what class would that be?
That class would be anthropology
broke out of a months-long non-reading jag by reading this Christmas gift:
it's what happens right before Episode III. oddly, it clashes quite a bit with the CLONE WARS cartoons, but whatever. i'm sure neither Luceno nor the guys who did the cartoons (or Lucas, for that matter) knew all the details in advance. it's pretty essential for any Star Wars fan and would probably be of great interest for those who didn't think Count Dooku or General Grievous mattered much in the grand scheme of things. i quite enjoyed it and read it in two days, which is nearly a record for me.
hopefully, there will be something a little meatier next time.
it's what happens right before Episode III. oddly, it clashes quite a bit with the CLONE WARS cartoons, but whatever. i'm sure neither Luceno nor the guys who did the cartoons (or Lucas, for that matter) knew all the details in advance. it's pretty essential for any Star Wars fan and would probably be of great interest for those who didn't think Count Dooku or General Grievous mattered much in the grand scheme of things. i quite enjoyed it and read it in two days, which is nearly a record for me.
hopefully, there will be something a little meatier next time.
QUOTE(Ben @ May 2 2006, 06:48 PM) [snapback]79070[/snapback]
Bob Baer. What a character.
What does this mean?
Dude is interesting. Syriana is based on him. Sy Hersh is always quoting his punchlines. Etc.
My dad knows the guy who wrote it apparently.
The only problem is that Easy Rider isn't all that great. That era of movies is the so overrated it's ridiculous. Scorsese, especially. Has anyone rewatched The Aviator? Jesus Christ it's a mess.
QUOTE(Ben @ May 4 2006, 08:12 PM) [snapback]81061[/snapback]
The only problem is that Easy Rider isn't all that great. That era of movies is the so overrated it's ridiculous. Scorsese, especially. Has anyone rewatched The Aviator? Jesus Christ it's a mess.
Which era in terms of years? Late 60s and 70s? Look at what came before and after. The early to mid 60s and the 80s were not good times for American movies at all.
Aviator still sucks, Tony. Somehow I knew that would summon you into the fray..
For real, what were good times in the history of American cinema? Most movies have always sucked. This idolization of the young 70s directors is so bizarre. I figure it's typical boomer self-worship, but I don't pretend to understand it.
For real, what were good times in the history of American cinema? Most movies have always sucked. This idolization of the young 70s directors is so bizarre. I figure it's typical boomer self-worship, but I don't pretend to understand it.
Well the 1950s were pretty damn awesome. All the great studio directors peaking at the same time (Hawks, Ford, Hitchcock). By the mid 60s things had gotten stale. 'Faster Pussycat Kill Kill' may have been the best American feature of the mid 60s. The 'film brats' who came out of either film school and/or Roger Corman (who's early 60s films were sort of a precursor to the hippie films) really did give American filmmaking its own New Wave.
I just finished 'The Assassin's Gate' by George Packer. Perhaps THE definitive account of post-war Iraq. It was fantastic.
Did you see his thing on McMasters and Tal Afar in the NYer last month?
Letter from Iraq:
The Lesson of Tal Afar
Is it too late for the Administration to correct its course in Iraq?
by George Packer
And this week in Talk of the Town:
Comment:
Not Wise
by George Packer
And, if you never saw it, we'll go way back for this rarity:
Mother Jones:
The Revolution Will Not Be Blogged
by George Packer
The Lesson of Tal Afar
Is it too late for the Administration to correct its course in Iraq?
by George Packer
And this week in Talk of the Town:
Comment:
Not Wise
by George Packer
And, if you never saw it, we'll go way back for this rarity:
Mother Jones:
The Revolution Will Not Be Blogged
by George Packer
Ransacked the library last night.
[attachmentid=302]
I'm going to have to buy this one. I won't be able to finish his exhaustively funny footnotes before I have to take it back.
[attachmentid=303]
Fanny & Alexander: The Script (illustration from the actual book not available). Ingmar Bergman writes various portions of it almost like a novel, and some scenes are were not even used or are vastly different from the finished work.
[attachmentid=305]
Saw the movie, which I enjoyed very much. Now will read the book which everyone says was vastly superior and really unfilmable.
[attachmentid=304]
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/082641477...glance&n=283155
This little book by no means can explain every nook and cranny, but really does help guide readers through the twisty turns of David Foster Wallace's Inifinite Jest. I'm going to have to buy this one, too.
[attachmentid=302]
I'm going to have to buy this one. I won't be able to finish his exhaustively funny footnotes before I have to take it back.
[attachmentid=303]
Fanny & Alexander: The Script (illustration from the actual book not available). Ingmar Bergman writes various portions of it almost like a novel, and some scenes are were not even used or are vastly different from the finished work.
[attachmentid=305]
Saw the movie, which I enjoyed very much. Now will read the book which everyone says was vastly superior and really unfilmable.
[attachmentid=304]
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/082641477...glance&n=283155
This little book by no means can explain every nook and cranny, but really does help guide readers through the twisty turns of David Foster Wallace's Inifinite Jest. I'm going to have to buy this one, too.
QUOTE(no magnets @ Feb 11 2006, 01:58 AM) [snapback]17024[/snapback]
the rock snob's dictionary has been on my coffee table for a few days now and it's worth a few minutes to page through every now and then. i think i'll actually pick up a real book next week, though.
QUOTE(worrywort @ Apr 21 2006, 12:44 AM) [snapback]70186[/snapback]
Not as eye-opening as Rock Snob, but good for a few nuggets
The authors on WNYC's Soundcheck
http://audio.wnyc.org/soundcheck/soundcheck042506a.mp3
Moby Dick, believe it or not. And it's actually a lot funnier than I imagined it would be. Who would've thought that they had a sense of humor in the mid 1800's?
This is pretty interesting.
QUOTE(Raleigh St. Clair @ May 6 2006, 02:48 PM) [snapback]82527[/snapback]
Moby Dick, believe it or not. And it's actually a lot funnier than I imagined it would be. Who would've thought that they had a sense of humor in the mid 1800's?
When you work your way through that, try Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy...naughtier than a Benny Hill episode-- and a definite book "about nothing" written centuries before Seinfeld.
Catching up with brief discussion, yeah Ben that's kind of crazy, I mean I'm not going to defend the aviator but looking at best picture nom's thru the 70s vs. the 90s or aughts is just, like jealousy x100.
Its a great book, esp because it dishes the dirty gossip details.
Its a great book, esp because it dishes the dirty gossip details.
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